My Sister's Keeper - gripping right up until the COP-OUT ending. I was disgusted.
The Historian - bilge.
The Time Traveller's Wife - I lost respect for the colleague that told me it was her favourite book ever.
Any 'biography' by David Bret - there should be a list of credible biographers, and he should be struck off it.
Catcher In The Rye - I read it as a depressed teen and wanted to slap the narrator.
Anything by Patricia Cornwell after Point of Origin - she not only believed but tried to create her own hype and her subsequent Scarpetta novels are nothing but narcissistic masturbatory fantasies.
the first harry potter was badly wrote as it kept repeating the same names and was very bad in grammar too
rose madder: 400 pages in and I was still waiting for something to happen
Oh, the irony!
My personal choices for this list would have to be On The Road by Jack Kerouac and Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe - both of them had an absolutely unreadable quality to them in that neither had a single natural break antwhere in the book. Rambling, non-sensical, unengaging drivel from start to finish in both of them unfortunately.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I have been reading the book for 5 years and still not finished by the time I pick it up again I will have to start from the beginning.
I must admit I enjoyed The Historian but can understand that it may not be to everyone's taste.
I found it hard to get into Dracula when I first began reading and only managed to finish it after forcing myself to do so but it took a few months.
Let's see... Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite. Granted I didn't finish it, but I got more than halfway through before abandoning it. The main character was extremely annoying. I did like the writing style, though. Eh.
Also, I read the beginning of Twilight and hated it.
I love books set in this period; think C.J. Sansom. But i found this unreadable pretentious crap. Poor writing, grammar, exposition so that you didn't even know who was speaking.
To Kill A Mocking Bird, The Old Man And The Sea, The Gun, The Hobbit, etc
Never understood why such crap books are chosen as being suitable to study.
The only book, or I should really say play I enjoyed was An Inspector Calls.
I can't speak for The Old Man and the Sea or The Gun but its a shame you didn't enjoy TKAM or The Hobbit as I think both are wonderful books.
TKAM has a very powerful message and is brilliantly written - its got very important themes and I can only wish that I had studied it at school! And the Hobbit is a great book - i remember studying that at school and learning all about the different meters for the songs and poems and things like that. It's what really got me into reading actually and I remember our whole class asking to stay late so we could read more!
I understand if you didn't enjoy them at school but to call them the worst books? I think that's probably going a bit far...
I can't speak for The Old Man and the Sea or The Gun but its a shame you didn't enjoy TKAM or The Hobbit as I think both are wonderful books.
...
Funnily enough To Kill a Mocking Bird was one I studied at 'O' Level (O Levels ) and though I don't remember it clearly, I remember that I enjoyed it then. Reading this and just thinking of it now I'm going to get it and re-read it!
My own contribution to this thread would be Chris Moyles first book :sleep: I did finish it, though, as it was the only book I'd taken on that particular holiday
I can't remember the name or author of the worst book I've ever read, I just remember that it was a science fiction book where a group of people are transported (in some way never really explained) to a futuristic place where everything is colder and darker and the people (aliens?) who live there are by nature evil and cruel. They realise this is a hellish parallel dimension, escape it somehow and go to a warm, light dimension where the people are good but it's so perfect that it's practically sterile because nothing changes. And then they find their way back home again, the book ends and I wonder why the hell I read all 400+ pages of this garbage.
Second worst would actually be a trilogy of sci-fi books by Elizabeth Moon (Hunting Party, Sporting Chance, Winning Colours) which I read in an omnibus edition, I read them because I'd enjoyed her Vatta's War books but whereas those had a decent story and excitement, these had literally 100 to 150 pages about horseriding and foxhunting in mindnumbing detail sandwiched into the middle of a fairly dull story that only started picking up towards the end of the third book.
I'm surprised that Catcher in the Rye and Wuthering Heights have been selected.
I found value in The Catcher in the Rye and every time I hear the word phoney it reminds me of the book, I share Holden's aversion to phoniness.
Wuthering Heights is my favourite book, I think it's a masterpiece. I read it for the first time when I was about 7 and I remember being shocked that Cathy didn't want to go to heaven and if she ended up there she would cause a right rumpus and make the angels throw her back down to the Heights.
I read it again as a teenager, then throughout my life at different ages. I read it again last year and found that I've taken different things from it depending on my age.
The worst book I've ever read is 'The Lovely Bones.'
I hated it so much it has put me off modern fiction for life.
I mean it, it scarred me - now I only read the classics and modern non-fiction, mostly biographies.
I need a really good book recommendation to break me out of my self-imposed no-modern-novels-ever-again stance.
What a great thread. If nothing else it really does show how diverse everyone's taste is. So many books here I would agree are dire and yet so many that I quite enjoyed.
I'm really not too keen on historical fiction - although I'm rather partial to Jane Austen - and have never been able to get through anything written by a Bronte. Twilight books were wasted hours of my life I will never get back again
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is pretty terrible. I started it quite enjoying it but by the end I found I hated it. Everything became a bit too conveniant and formulaic.
I have also tried reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell several times but find it a real chore. Too long winded and the constant notes are very distracting. Shame, because I enjoyed the book of short stories the author has written.
Comments
Then to cap it all, we were forced to read the 'sequel' As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, which was even worse.
Arrrghh.
I agree. Looked good, but story was awful.
The Historian - bilge.
The Time Traveller's Wife - I lost respect for the colleague that told me it was her favourite book ever.
Any 'biography' by David Bret - there should be a list of credible biographers, and he should be struck off it.
Catcher In The Rye - I read it as a depressed teen and wanted to slap the narrator.
Anything by Patricia Cornwell after Point of Origin - she not only believed but tried to create her own hype and her subsequent Scarpetta novels are nothing but narcissistic masturbatory fantasies.
Oh, the irony!
My personal choices for this list would have to be On The Road by Jack Kerouac and Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe - both of them had an absolutely unreadable quality to them in that neither had a single natural break antwhere in the book. Rambling, non-sensical, unengaging drivel from start to finish in both of them unfortunately.
I must admit I enjoyed The Historian but can understand that it may not be to everyone's taste.
I found it hard to get into Dracula when I first began reading and only managed to finish it after forcing myself to do so but it took a few months.
Also, I read the beginning of Twilight and hated it.
I love books set in this period; think C.J. Sansom. But i found this unreadable pretentious crap. Poor writing, grammar, exposition so that you didn't even know who was speaking.
Peter James - Dead tomorrow. To many characters to quickly and very little development for any of them.
Stephen King - Under the dome. Same as above but I'm determind to finish it eventually.
or
Sap Rising by AA Gill.
Both total dross.
To Kill A Mocking Bird, The Old Man And The Sea, The Gun, The Hobbit, etc
Never understood why such crap books are chosen as being suitable to study.
The only book, or I should really say play I enjoyed was An Inspector Calls.
We must be the only two! Its the only book I have ever actually thrown away!
I can't speak for The Old Man and the Sea or The Gun but its a shame you didn't enjoy TKAM or The Hobbit as I think both are wonderful books.
TKAM has a very powerful message and is brilliantly written - its got very important themes and I can only wish that I had studied it at school! And the Hobbit is a great book - i remember studying that at school and learning all about the different meters for the songs and poems and things like that. It's what really got me into reading actually and I remember our whole class asking to stay late so we could read more!
I understand if you didn't enjoy them at school but to call them the worst books? I think that's probably going a bit far...
I couldn't even finish it, it was that bad.
Funnily enough To Kill a Mocking Bird was one I studied at 'O' Level (O Levels
My own contribution to this thread would be Chris Moyles first book :sleep: I did finish it, though, as it was the only book I'd taken on that particular holiday
I've never read it, but the Joan Collins book "Infamous" contains the notorious line:
Second worst would actually be a trilogy of sci-fi books by Elizabeth Moon (Hunting Party, Sporting Chance, Winning Colours) which I read in an omnibus edition, I read them because I'd enjoyed her Vatta's War books but whereas those had a decent story and excitement, these had literally 100 to 150 pages about horseriding and foxhunting in mindnumbing detail sandwiched into the middle of a fairly dull story that only started picking up towards the end of the third book.
I found value in The Catcher in the Rye and every time I hear the word phoney it reminds me of the book, I share Holden's aversion to phoniness.
Wuthering Heights is my favourite book, I think it's a masterpiece. I read it for the first time when I was about 7 and I remember being shocked that Cathy didn't want to go to heaven and if she ended up there she would cause a right rumpus and make the angels throw her back down to the Heights.
I read it again as a teenager, then throughout my life at different ages. I read it again last year and found that I've taken different things from it depending on my age.
The worst book I've ever read is 'The Lovely Bones.'
I hated it so much it has put me off modern fiction for life.
I mean it, it scarred me - now I only read the classics and modern non-fiction, mostly biographies.
I need a really good book recommendation to break me out of my self-imposed no-modern-novels-ever-again stance.
I'm really not too keen on historical fiction - although I'm rather partial to Jane Austen - and have never been able to get through anything written by a Bronte. Twilight books were wasted hours of my life I will never get back again
I have also tried reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell several times but find it a real chore. Too long winded and the constant notes are very distracting. Shame, because I enjoyed the book of short stories the author has written.